Six Degrees constructs advanced communications solution for United Living Group

Key merger sparks technology overhaul for affordable housing contractor.

LONDON, UK – 18th March 2015 – Following the merger of United House Limited and Bullock Construction, the newly formed United Living Group (ULG) has a vision to become a national leader in the provision of affordable housing and sustainable solutions. Requiring a first class IT infrastructure, ULG has entrusted Six Degrees to support its expanding workforce and clientele with wide area network (WAN), IP telephony and Disaster Recovery (DR) services.

As part of the ongoing integration process, ULG needed to consolidate its network and communications assets. This was essential to ensure a seamless transition as the headcount doubled and the group entered a phase of rapid growth.

Six Degrees is underpinning ULG’s new operations with a unified network and common infrastructure. The Six Degrees WAN service has been designed for organisations that need multi-site solutions ranging from broadband speeds of 8Mbps, to those in excess of 1Gbps. The Next Generation Network (NGN) is completely resilient with the ability to re-route in less than 50 milliseconds, keeping traffic flowing 24/7/365.

Six Degrees has deployed its IP telephony voice offering across 400 ULG users and there are plans in place to deliver this to 400 additional users. The service gives staff access to video and collaboration tools on virtually any device and is delivered over Six Degrees’ high speed, secure network, leveraging SIP services and business continuity capabilities. Key for ULG, the IP Telephony solution also has the built-in capacity to grow as and when the Group expands.

Working in the construction industry means that ULG runs to very tight deadlines. When work on a new site starts, the team on the ground needs to have the infrastructure in place to support operations straight away. The solution we have deployed has the ability to scale at a moment’s notice so ULG can rely on having the technology they need, when and where they need it.

Six Degrees has also leveraged its co-location services for ULG. United House was already using Six Degrees’ converged datacentre in Greenwich to backup its head office operations. However, the service ultimately needed to be extended to support the whole Group. In preparation for the merger, United House’s head office server infrastructure was decommissioned for migration to a co-location environment at Six Degrees’ Studley datacentre.

We selected the quiet period between Christmas and New Year for the migration. Two tonnes of equipment was moved at this time to create a triangular network connection from ULG’s head office in Swanley to our Greenwich and Studley datacentres. The migration was successfully deployed with minimal downtime and has resulted in increased DR capabilities for the new group.

Six Degrees has taken the time to understand our industry-specific requirements and recognised that downtime is simply not an option; the team at Six Degrees has developed a solution that is perfectly aligned to the way we work. With flexibility, scalability and security, our unified voice solutions, underpinned by the Six Degrees network, will ensure our communications are always running effectively. We are pleased to have Six Degrees by our side as we embark on the next steps of our journey as ULG.